With the advent of highly contagious diseases such as AIDS, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has developed strict regulations as to the use of personal protective equipment in the clinical setting. While various face shields, masks, gowns and other devices are available to meet these guidelines and better protect the clinician and his staff, there is a need to provide a device that will specifically protect a physician while performing a procedure in which a surgical scope and other related surgical instruments are used.
The prior art has concentrated on protecting sterile, prepared areas of the patient from contamination by non-sterile areas (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,414,968 (Amin); 4,462,396 (Wickman); 4,378,794 (Collins); 4,489,720 (Morris, et el.); 4,809,628 (Jackson); 4,974,604 (Morris)). But efforts to protect the physician from contaminated body fluids have been unsatisfactory.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,834,068, for example, Gottesman discloses a disc-shaped, rigid plastic splash shield that attaches to the eyepiece of an endoscope or similar instrument, providing some protection for the physician's face. Splashing blood or irrigation fluid simply rebounds from the rear face of the splash shield and drips onto the floor, or runs down the surface of a conventional surgical drape, or off of the physician's clothing. U.S. Pat. No. 4,848,322 (Dash, et al.) discloses a similar rigid face shield, which is rectangular and curved slightly to wrap around the physician's face. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 4,535,481 (Ruth-Larson, et al.) discloses a protective gown with a broad skirt and fluid-impermeable areas that can be worn by the physician for protection during high-fluid procedures.
Aside from these prior art devices, the only protection afforded the physician by prior art devices consists of channelling blood and irrigation fluids, and sometimes feces, into disposal bags, or into a trough and drain arrangement sometimes provided on operating tables used for procedures such as cystoscopies. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,378,794 (Collins); U.S. Pat. No. 4,903,710 (Jessamine, et al.); and U.S. Pat. No. 4,471,769 (Lockhart). U.S. Pat. No. 4,926,882 (Lawrence) discloses a clear plastic bag intended to protect a physician conducting an autopsy from body fluids, blood, and bone fragments dispersed in the air by an oscillating bone saw. It would be incapable of use on live patients.
In short, the prior art intended for use with live patients teaches only small, rigid masks and complex drapes which are usable only for certain specific surgical procedures, and provide inadequate protection and which allow only partially-protected access to the patient. Our invention is directed to overcoming the aforementioned limitations and problems in prior art devices.